I just started having sex again after 15 years, and decided to go Brazillian, which I realy enjoy. But I was surprised at how much everything has changed “down there” .. any way to plump things up, just wondering? Silly, i know…

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Not silly, I know sometimes it’s hard not to be self conscious about our most intimate parts. But I do know that vagina’s are just like clouds, no two are the same, so be happy with your uniqueness! One thing that will puffit up temporarily is lots of sex. It may only last for 24 hours or so (with the right partner) but then you just repeat the process:-) I would be interested to know what Joan Price thinks about those vaginal tightening creams?? Any comment Joan? I’ve always worried that I’d come down with some gosh awful infection or reaction to whatever’s in those.

* No one knows if “Shrink Creams” can hurt you. Widely available “shrink creams”, “sure grip”, “tighten up” and “feel like a virgin again” claim to make the vagina smaller or tighter. The key ingredient in these creams is alum. Alum absorbs water out of the outer layer of the skin; as more water is absorbed, the cells begin to swell, closing the ducts that water would normally flow through. No study has been done on the effect of these creams on the cervix, which is what they eventually end up getting rubbed on during penetration, but I’ll wager it’s not good. I kind of want to make the manufacturers snort a thick rail of alum, so they can study the effects on their own mucous membranes. What I really hate about these “shrink” creams is the fact that they’re trading on female insecurities about the vagina not being tight, pretty or good enough for their male partner — like we need any negative reinforcement from our pussy-phobic culture about how we look, feel or smell down there. The marketing text runs, “China Shrink Cream is formulated to tighten the vaginal walls. China Shrink Cream is to help with loose vagina due to multiple child birth and frigidity.” I also want to throw up every time I see the packaging on these creams, as they are often called “oriental” or “China Shrink Cream”, paralying off of racist stereotypes and exotifying Asian “sexual mystery.”

I beg you (this is Joan talking again), accept your genitals as they are. The lips on our mouths have lost the plumpness of youth, and we smile and kiss just fine. Let your vaginal lips do whtat they do without altering them and risking side effects that we don’t even know yet — except, how good can it be for aging vaginas to divert moisture from the inside to plump up on the outside.

OMG, you two made me laugh so hard I snorted! (Maybe I should get my sinuses fixed. But no, I’ll just keep snorting when I laugh really hard. That’s why Ma Nature put skin over the critters.) P.S. I’m not looking either – holy cow, what a shock that could be. 0_0

No, please don’t reconstruct your vagina for cosmetic reasons. We’re old and wise enough to stop letting cosmetic surgeons make money on our insecurities for a “defect” that doesn’t exist! We’re all different — have you see Betty Dodson’s gallery of photos of open vulvas? She did this to show that we’re all different shapes and colors, all beautiful. We also change through our lives– so what? Let’s celebrate what those aging genitals still know how to so well: receive and give pleasure.

I was listening to an NPR program on female genital mutilation, which is still done in some countries, sometimes to girls as young as 3, sometimes as a grown woman, and at all ages in between. It’s done by cutting off the clitoris with a razor blade, or scaping it off with a stone, and no anesthesia. The women hold the girl down and do the ritual, because they always have, and because they think they can only marry and serve food if their clitoris has been removed.

The clitoris is the only organ in the entire body that has no use except to give the women pleasure. The cultures that remove it want the man to be assured that the woman won’t stray after marriage.

Surely you’re all wincing and shaking at this mutilation image and the concept behind it. I’m risking your disgust on purpose — I want you to see how negative, harmful, emotionally, physically, and medically destructive it is to change the shape or function of a woman’s sex organs to suit a cultural image of what’s “right.”

I know that the so-called “vaginal rejuvenation,” invented by plastic surgeons to make money (there’s no other reason to take a knife to a healthy vulva), “sell” this process to surgeons by telling them how much money they can make for such a short procedure. Don’t fall for it, please.

Joan: I first heard of this so-called ”passage into womanhood” - for lack of a better term – 20 years ago. When a former coworker told me about this I was shocked. I could never imagine anyone doing this to another human being let alone a young girl who hadn’t done anything in her entire life to deserve such harsh treatment. It made me very sad to think that the only way men can make themselves seem big and important is to make a woman suffer for being a woman. And that’s what this procedure is really all about – stroking idiot men’s egos.

i had incontinence in my early 50′s. I do not know what is called, but i had it corrected. Is that vaginal rejuvenation? It is a looooooooong process. I spent months being analyzed etc. Very xpensive procedure and is 90% effective.

No: the procedure you had was an approved medical procedure. The procedure Joan and I are speaking of is performed in foreign countries (mostly in Africa) on young girls as young as 11 years old. The “doctor” DOES NOT use sterile equipment. If she’s lucky – the young girl will bleed to death during the procedure. If not – she will definitely experience an unnecessary and oftentimes painful infection that takes years to heal – because after all – medicine is really something these villages know nothing about. In many cases the procedure is performed by the so-called village voodoo doctor or elder who usually uses things like badly made knives, razor blades, spear tips, broken bottles, etc. – anything with a sharp, sharp edge. The young girl is NOT given any kind of anesthsia – she is literally held down by her mother or caregiver - who has also undergone this procedure as a young girl – and she is traumatized for the rest of her life because of this. Sex is extremely painful for the girl – for the rest of her life. However, the man enjoys the tightness of her vagina and the thrill of knowing she will never want to have sex with another man – not realizing (the dumbass) that she doesn’t even want to have sex with him. In most cases, the girl’s monthly period lasts for months and urinating is even more painful. And we won’t even discuss the pain and trauma of childbirth!!! These women are literally ruined for life. And for what? So some asshole man can feel like a stud!!!

hummm I think Marcyann wants to plump up her outer vagina as the lips become flat as we age, then the discussion turned to the inside of the vagina when one is stretched out and vaginal rejuvenation is performed. Now you are describing clitoris mutilation which i heard Oprah talk about and there is even a black model that this was done to, and another girl that her FATHER had her out of the country before this was supposed to happen to her. It is a tradition and women are the ones that hold the girls down, usually the mom and the aunt. AWFUL.

But Marcyann, what is it that you are talking about? I am totally confused.

What Lynnette said. I don’t know how this went to clitoris mutilation from someone wondering about having their vaginal lips or whatever plumped up, I would assume by saline or collagen injections – which also sounds really awful. 0_0

is there not a time in our lives, before we kick the proverbial bucket, that we no longer need to worry about our vaginas? All this un-necessary plumping and pumping up of various lips and other parts of our bodies - for what? This society is just going nuts with all those surgical procedures, that are not needed for health reasons. Just relax everybody. We need to concentrate on our Health and good mental capacities. What good is a plump vagina, when you get befuddled in the brain and can’t remember, what the heck you were going to do with it. LOL

yes, you’re right, my bad, of course i was referring to the labia. I had just wondered if there was another way besides surgical methods to plump them up. Cream or pinching or something!! Was just surprised at all the ways our bodies age that we weren’t thinking about. like yoo hoo look at this, and wham something’s changed, sagged or appeared out of the blue. I think i have aged gracefully so far, but i do want to be able to change, improve the things that I can.

Vulva: The female external genital organs including the labia majora, labia minora, clitoris, tiny glands called Bartolin’s glands, and the entrance to the vagina (the vestibule of the vagina). via MedicineNet.com. So vulva does include part of the vagina.

“Vulva: The female external genital organs including the labia majora, labia minora, clitoris, tiny glands called Bartolin’s glands, and the entrance to the vagina (the vestibule of the vagina). via MedicineNet.com. So vulva does include part of the vagina.”================================================

Joan, let’s not split pubic hairs.

You reiterate my statement in your first line up-thread “Vulva: The female external genital organs… .” As our resident self-proclaimed senior sex expert, you might have realized that Maryann was referring to the loss of padding to that area which Brazil waxing has bared and not to her vagina (or any part of that tunnel–hair does not grow at the entrance of the vagina encircled by the labia minora). But have the last word if you must.

It just occurred to me that maybe the decreased plumpness is from the lack of blood flow to the genitals after 15 years of no sex, rather than from aging itself. See if your genitals change now that you’re in a relationship again.

I always felt that if a man wants me to look (down there) like a 10 year old then HE HAS A PROBLEM. We are what we are and we should not worry about such things. Like is to short. I am pretty sure vaginas are as different as our faces are. Celebrate that you dont have your plumbing hanging on the outside. HAHA!!

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